4 ms·

I did one of these at THAT Conference a few years back with a few friends. In our case, we had the main display and then each person had their own console with

I did one of these at THAT Conference a few years back with a few friends. In our case, we had the main display and then each person had their own console with their area - weapons, nav, engineering, and science - and the captain had to call out commands and make the whole thing work. We walked in thinking it would be fun but almost silly.. and walked out drained because it was intense. You don't have time to do anything than monitor your own display and make sure you're ready for a variety of things that could happen next. Obviously, there were zero stakes (other than embarrassing yourself) but had a new perspective on what naval battle may be like. If you have the chance to do it - especially in person with the big displays - do it.

bee_rider 4y ago
The one takeaway I’ve gotten from bridge simulators VS normal video games is how hard it is to coordinate people doing different tasks and looking at different interfaces. Even in a game like PUBG that requires quite a bit of communication, you’ve all got the same type of view from different angles. Having a totally different view makes communication much harder. I can’t imagine how they run a bridge in real life — although as professionals they must have a ton of skills and training at it.
- starkparker 4y ago
  The training can look unsurprisingly a lot like a spaceship bridgesim: https://youtu.be/oUCoDIrdR_4?t=33 https://youtu.be/oUCoDIrdR_4?t=33
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    Oh yeah — I got to tour a bridge simulator while interviewing at some defense contractor (didn’t get hired, though, maybe they could tell I’d want to load a spaceship bridge simulator up on the thing). It is kind of funny, I actually got a “seasick” feeling on it. The simulated “deck” didn’t move, but the image through the “windows” did, I think having grown up near the coast I’d been on enough boats that my brain expected the floor to start moving to keep up with the horizon.
    - LoganDark 4y ago
      I guess I'm sort of lucky that it's impossible for me to get seasick. Though I don't think it'll ever be useful in a situation like that. p.s. first time I've seen a real em-dash in someone else's HN comment, very nice :3
      - bee_rider 4y ago
        I must admit I didn’t do anything clever there. I’ve limited social media like hackernews to just my iPhone (at least picking up the phone is a conscious decision to take a break, having the social media in my browser is a big distraction). The phone just translates hyphen hyphen to em-dash.
    - Aeolun 4y ago
      > The simulated “deck” didn’t move I have absolutely no experience with ships beyond small sailboats, but watching the video gave me a very strong ‘that’s not a ship’ feeling, and it all comes down to it being a rock solid environment.
  - Animats 4y ago
    It's possible to go much further.[1] This is the "USS Trayer", at the U.S. Navy's Great Lakes Naval Training Center. All U.S. Navy recruits go through an all-night test onboard. It looks like a real ship at night, outside and inside. It's even in water, moored alongside a pier. The ship can be navigated, go into combat, and take damage, including flooding and fires. It's deliberately very stressful. All this is indoors and inland. It's in a water tank. It's a big simulator for an entire crew, a hundred or so at once. The U.S. Navy does have bridge training simulators, but not enough of them. That's come out after some ship accidents due to bad coordination and ship-driving on the bridge. [1] https://youtu.be/jibm7kyIGcM https://youtu.be/jibm7kyIGcM
    - herewulf 4y ago
      The US Army does similar training. There are some dumb "video game" type simulators of vehicles, etc that aren't worth much (VBS 3). However, every Headquarters from Battalion on up to Division or Corps periodically gets out their tents and computer systems to do various Command Post Exercises (CPX). It feels a bit like being on the bridge of a ship when reacting to events and issuing orders and watching units executing those orders on the (computerized and analog) map. Anyway, probably the Navy and these space simulators are a lot more fun though.
- mgdlbp 4y ago
  Just adding that multicrew/multiseat can be found in games here and there, mostly with spaceships and tanks. aside: [bridge simulator] is another one of those unsearchable terms -- the other type of game dominates. Though atm [bridge sim] is relatively relevant in Google, but not Bing. Amusingly, Yandex returns a balanced mix of the two domains for both queries.

bee_rider 4y ago

The one takeaway I’ve gotten from bridge simulators VS normal video games is how hard it is to coordinate people doing different tasks and looking at different interfaces. Even in a game like PUBG that requires quite a bit of communication, you’ve all got the same type of view from different angles. Having a totally different view makes communication much harder. I can’t imagine how they run a bridge in real life — although as professionals they must have a ton of skills and training at it.

starkparker 4y ago
The training can look unsurprisingly a lot like a spaceship bridgesim: https://youtu.be/oUCoDIrdR_4?t=33 https://youtu.be/oUCoDIrdR_4?t=33
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Oh yeah — I got to tour a bridge simulator while interviewing at some defense contractor (didn’t get hired, though, maybe they could tell I’d want to load a spaceship bridge simulator up on the thing). It is kind of funny, I actually got a “seasick” feeling on it. The simulated “deck” didn’t move, but the image through the “windows” did, I think having grown up near the coast I’d been on enough boats that my brain expected the floor to start moving to keep up with the horizon.
  - LoganDark 4y ago
    I guess I'm sort of lucky that it's impossible for me to get seasick. Though I don't think it'll ever be useful in a situation like that. p.s. first time I've seen a real em-dash in someone else's HN comment, very nice :3
    - bee_rider 4y ago
      I must admit I didn’t do anything clever there. I’ve limited social media like hackernews to just my iPhone (at least picking up the phone is a conscious decision to take a break, having the social media in my browser is a big distraction). The phone just translates hyphen hyphen to em-dash.
  - Aeolun 4y ago
    > The simulated “deck” didn’t move I have absolutely no experience with ships beyond small sailboats, but watching the video gave me a very strong ‘that’s not a ship’ feeling, and it all comes down to it being a rock solid environment.
- Animats 4y ago
  It's possible to go much further.[1] This is the "USS Trayer", at the U.S. Navy's Great Lakes Naval Training Center. All U.S. Navy recruits go through an all-night test onboard. It looks like a real ship at night, outside and inside. It's even in water, moored alongside a pier. The ship can be navigated, go into combat, and take damage, including flooding and fires. It's deliberately very stressful. All this is indoors and inland. It's in a water tank. It's a big simulator for an entire crew, a hundred or so at once. The U.S. Navy does have bridge training simulators, but not enough of them. That's come out after some ship accidents due to bad coordination and ship-driving on the bridge. [1] https://youtu.be/jibm7kyIGcM https://youtu.be/jibm7kyIGcM
  - herewulf 4y ago
    The US Army does similar training. There are some dumb "video game" type simulators of vehicles, etc that aren't worth much (VBS 3). However, every Headquarters from Battalion on up to Division or Corps periodically gets out their tents and computer systems to do various Command Post Exercises (CPX). It feels a bit like being on the bridge of a ship when reacting to events and issuing orders and watching units executing those orders on the (computerized and analog) map. Anyway, probably the Navy and these space simulators are a lot more fun though.
mgdlbp 4y ago
Just adding that multicrew/multiseat can be found in games here and there, mostly with spaceships and tanks. aside: [bridge simulator] is another one of those unsearchable terms -- the other type of game dominates. Though atm [bridge sim] is relatively relevant in Google, but not Bing. Amusingly, Yandex returns a balanced mix of the two domains for both queries.